dbr wrote:If 2013 is any indication, Tortorella does allow "a shooting gallery from the point"..

..relative to most of the other teams in the league at any rate.

It's also worth noting that the NYR were 10th in the league in shots allowed last year. Still, graph shows why his forwards have to block shots. Some of it is "for the team", but I'd argue most of it is because you don't want that D-man to have all day to "wire a Garrison" from the slot. If you're going to out-number and support down low, the trade off is more time for their "D" up high.

At any rate, I think Canuck fans have made too big of a deal about this. The Canucks have proven they can't "flip the switch" to a greasier, grittier playoff style when it counts. Torts is going to demand that type of style (collapse on your goalie, hard on the walls, make/take a hit to make the play etc.) all season long. If our players are too fragile for that system, then we'll never go far in the playoffs anyways.

RoyalDude wrote:It's obvious that mike gillis has carte Blanche around here with most of you, like if he was banging your old lady you'd be at bedside with your poms poms cheering him on "Miley you're the best" but did your buddy the players agent just hire John "Bill Laforge" Torterella?

It was funny hearing Doug MacLeans views on blocking shots and how much harder guys are shooting the pucks in todays game. In other words, it's fucking don cherry old school and guys will get hurt, as we are already seeing. Ain't worth it

Dude that droning sound above your head is the point in blocking shots going right over your head...

Its not the direct result of a blocked shot that counts, although that is desirable (a scoring chance eliminated.) Its the effort and dedication and willingness to sacrifice the body to win that is the POINT. This team has been powder puff soft since before Burke got canned, and its pretty obvious to everyone including you that this line up was cowed by the Bruins in 2011, and has been pretty much twinky filling since their "revenge" game in Boston in 2012...

It matter's fuck all if the entire line up goes down to broken legs blocking shots this season if they are just gonna play perimeter hockey and skate away from midget rats in the final..

Torts is just making the changes most of us on here have wanted since Sedin was speed bagged...

Although I was skeptical of the hiring at first, and although it's still way too early to tell obviously, I have really liked the presence of John Tortortella so far. The Canucks have looked gritter and tougher on the puck in this short season so far.

I also like the fact that Torts stuck it to CBC. He made Glen Healy look a little foolish from my perspective.

BladesofSteel wrote:Healy managed to do that all by himself. But Friedman's comment certainly made things interesting.

*Edit* Welcome to the bored, by the way.

Agreed.

It was nice to see Friedman put Healy in his place. I do find it interesting that Ron McLean didn't exactly discourage Healy from saying that.......and in a way, sort of prompted Healy to make the comment. PJ Stock tried to add a little gasoline to the fire as well.

Can anyone think of ANY reason he said "Montreal" in the middle of all that??

And as mentioned, Healy making a major ass out of himself.

THESE GUYS "get paid for opinions"??

Thank you for the warm welcome Strangelove.

PJ Stock has a big of bricks for brains, haha. Lol @ random use of "Montreal"

Like I said though - I'm just glad that we've got Torts on our side. Controversy or not, Torts isn't going to let CBC push the Canucks around in the media, and he's clearly a guy that won't stand for bullshit. I love what I'm seeing so far.

Rumsfeld wrote:Since we built this team on the Detroit model and the Wings have had the most successful system in the league for the last two decades, I'd be kind of curious to see what their blocked-shot stats have looked like over the last 10 years or so.

Few things:

1) The Canucks are no longer following the Detroit model. Since the Cody Hodgson deal, the Canucks have gone away from that. I'd argue that at present day under Torts, we are trying to play more similar to LA/San Jose/St.Louis/Boston type model. Time will tell if we have the players to actually play that type of style.

2) Since we appear to be following in the footsteps of LA, St. Louis, Boston, I'd be more interested in seeing what their blocked-shot stats have looked like over the last few years.

Torts teams don't actually block an inordinate amount of shots from anything I've seen. i think he uses it more as a motivational and commitment type thing. He wants to push guys to give it their all and then a little more. Being willing to throw yourself into a shot is one of those things. Playing guys 3 or 4 minutes more than they have ever been played on a regular basis feeds into it. Rewarding guys who are giving that effort feeds into it. He's simply all about pushing the players. Luongo said it last night when asked about not giving up when down in the game "Torts won't let us give up".

It's really the same philosophy that Sutter uses and Laviolette and many others. It's also the reason that some of these guys have a fairly short shelf life as coaches (though Torts actually has two pretty long tenures under his belt).

Look at Santorelli...good games or not a lot of coaches would not be giving him the nearly 18 minutes he got last night. He'd be tagged a 4th liner with 10 or less minutes. He plays well and gets time and promotions through the lineup. These active promotions and demotions throughout a game ought to keep guys on their toes and motivated.

The Brown Knight wrote:PJ Stock has a big of bricks for brains, haha. Lol @ random use of "Montreal"

Is it just me or is it ridiculously ironic that immediately after PJ rambled on like a crackhead

.... Healy says "You get paid for an opinion".

I guess it must just be me because I keep watching that segment and LOLing at those bozos

... over and over and over...

... meanwhile I don't see others around here making a big deal of it.

See, to me, Friedman on that CBC panel is like Alice in Wonderland, but yeah maybe that's just me...

The Brown Knight wrote:Like I said though - I'm just glad that we've got Torts on our side. Controversy or not, Torts isn't going to let CBC push the Canucks around in the media, and he's clearly a guy that won't stand for bullshit. I love what I'm seeing so far.